I have a 16' lowe aluminum boat, and have traditionally ran a 15 HP 4 stroke suzuki short shaft motor behind it. I am looking to sell my current motor, and then purchase a new mud motor asap. I am looking to pay around 3-3.5k on a motor, and want to get the most HP I can while also making sure the weight of the motor isn't too much for the boat. Do you have suggestions on long or hyper drive motors? Benefits you've personally experienced? I want to get at least a 23-30 HP engine if my boat can handle it. I hunt with friends who have both.

I have hunted waterfowl in deep water lakes my whole like, and this mud motor deal hasn't become a necessity until now. Any insight would be appreciate.

I love my long shaft, I have a 14 ft flat bottom with only a 9hp long shaft. It is a little slower but lighter. My friend has a 16 ft with a 35 hp hyper and it is super fast but pretty heavy. If I were you id probably look into a smaller hp so its lighter then doing some motor upgrades such as a performance carb, exhaust, or intake to bump up the power. Also if you decide to put on a bigger motor and are concerned about the weight you can get some floatation pods welded on the back. They help a lot.

With what you are looking to spend I would say go with a longtail from Backwater or give Mark Cheney from Utah Marsh Motors a call. I talked to Backwater the other day and you can get a 23hp longtail from them for $3500 shipped. I've heard nothing but good things about them and they have a lot of good reviews floating around on the web. I have run both surface drives and longtails and I keep going back to the longtail for simplicity. You will be hard pressed to get into a new surface drive for less than $4500 or so. Good luck!

gorimark wrote:Look into Mayhem Mud Motors. They are producing some great motors and I am really happy with the one I bought.

I second this one. A buddy of mine just picked up a 23hp long shaft from Mayhem and he took him out on the water to show him a few thing on the motor. They are in Hooper, so not far. I think he charges around $2500 complete for the 23hp.